'Strange Homelands: Encountering the Migrant on the Contemporary Greek Stage' (original) (raw)
Related papers
Identities in Transition, 2012
Migration as a historic phenomenon is the movement of people embedded in certain socioeconomic conditions. On the other hand, 'immigration' constitutes a constructed concept which sees migrants from the standpoint of the receiving country only, and produces them as the Other to the national Self, either directly through their 'illegalization' or indirectly through their 'victimization'. As a result, the images of the immigrant /'illegal alien' and of the immigrant /'victim-neo-slave' may prove equally reproductive of an ideology whereby the 'immigrant' as the Other is held in a position of inferiority, always from below, and the 'national' as the Self, in a position of hegemony. In that context, we will discuss different representations of the 'immigrant' as these appear in two contemporary greek plays-Katsikonouris' To Gala [Milk] and Spiliotis' Fotia kai nero [Fire and water]. Katsikonouris' play attempts to present a realistic perspective of migrants and migration through a focus on the daily problems the latter encounter. However, albeit noble his intentions might be, he ends up to imprison the migrant subject in stereotypical images, projecting fixed identities for the 'immigrant' and the 'national' compliant with the dominant ideology of the national-Self and the immigrant-Other. In effect, the dichotomy of Self-Other and the relations of power this entails are reproduced rather than dismantled. On the contrary, in Spiliotis' play quite more unconventional images of the respective identities are revealed through an inspired reversal of roles. Despite the fact that the binary pattern of the Self and the Other is not completely obliterated but only reversed, it does challenge stereotypical readings of each category and therefore encourages new spaces for the migrant's identity to emerge.
"Come and See What we Do": Contemporary Migrant Performances in Athens, Greece
In an essay titled "Autonomy, Recognition, Movement," Angela Mitropoulos writes that while capital relies on the nation-state and law "so as to enter the field of class struggle, working-class struggles can occur independently of any given form and level of representation." 1 Citing Mario Tronti's thesis that working-class movements at the global level can be seen as a "strategy of refusal," Mitropoulos points to how this notion of autonomy has become "pivotal to discussions of migration, border policy, and global capital." 2 Focusing on migration in order to attend to the nationalist strains often prevalent within anti-globalization and anticapitalist protests, she suggests that an understanding of class as a moving, global composition questions the inevitability of the nation-state as the necessary condition for representing class struggles. Furthermore, she insists that an uncritical approach to the inexorability of the nation-state, at the level of state policy as well as the "progressive" politics within it, makes possible the depiction of migrants "as bereft of political action, indeed of activism." 3 Therefore she argues that "the concept of the autonomy of migration is an insistence that politics does not need to be the property of the state and those who-however implicitly and by dint of a claim to belong to it, as the subject that is proper to it (its property)-can claim to reserve for themselves the thought and action that is deemed properly political." 4 Following Mitropoulos's lead, this essay engages with the concept of the autonomy of migration through an analysis of contemporary migrant performance practices in Greece. I engage critically with the performative action, activism, and political presence of ELANADISTIKANOUME (Come and see what we do), a performance group
«Beyond “Home Identity”? Immigrant Voices in Contemporary Greek Fiction»
2012
The unprecedented influx of immigrants in Greece in the last decades has led to a proliferation of fictions of migration. The emerging stories of migrants, refugees, and repatriates constitute a privileged field for the expression and reconfiguration of the problems created by the explosive presence of cultural difference within the nation's supposedly homogeneous society. Recent texts by Boulotis, Faïs, Firtinidou, and Hatzimoisiadis pose questions of identity, belonging, and democracy from the perspective of migrant characters, who articulate in their first-person narratives the experience of discrimination and victimization suffered in the host society. Reading these texts presents perplexing issues: does first-person or monologic narration intended to portray reality authentically, to criticize oppressive practices, and to generate empathy for the suffering immigrant contribute to the vision of a constructive intercultural existence? Do such invented self-accounts of experience suggest a conceptualization of immigrant characters as empowered subjects? Do they allow for conceptions of identity as multiple and provisional or do they reproduce essentialist notions rooted in the national culture?
On Border and Identity: A Performative Reflection from an Applied Theatre Project
ArtsPraxis, 2021
As an artist-scholar, I query: In what ways does border perform, (dis)connect, alter, shift dissolve and (re)imagine identity? Migration is essential to human existence in this present 'postnormal times' characterized by chaos, contradictions, global displacement and neoliberal realities (Ziauddin, 2010). From voluntary to forced migration, border shifts as living and non-living things move, and it is constantly being re/negotiated. Beyond physical or territorial border navigated in migration, cultures and arts transverse boundaries because people move with cultural practices, beliefs and traditions. For instance, as migrants' cultural practices and art forms trans-border, culture becomes a mobile apparatus that constantly changes and shifts from one form to another. As an autobiographical piece, in this article, I focus on the experience of the individual [me] to explore how my migratory and mobility experiences shape my identity and in turn find expression in my artistic practice. I engaged the notion of root and identities' (Bhavnani & Phoenix, 1994) and creating my own 'imagined communities' (Anderson, 1991). I focus on my performance in an applied theatre project with refugees, immigrants, and international students in Victoria,
Facing Mirrors": Contemporary Greek Theatre Productions and the Issue of Identity
2014
Αt the dawn of the twenty-first century, Greek theatre began an open discussion with each one of the components that had hitherto constituted its identity, sporadically at first, but with increasing intensity in the following years. Although this discussion was initially broad, including new as well as older theatre-makers, writers, directors, and actors, its most interesting and challenging part concerned mainly young artists. This change was brought about by a number of factors that will undoubtedly be part of future Greek Theatre Studies. A brief mention will nevertheless be made of a few factors that deserve special attention. A key reason for this change was the profound crisis within the institutions that, until recently, had provided the foundation for the identity of the Greek theatrical tradition. This problem, which dates back to the past and was not necessarily a by-product of the recent economic crisis, concerns a younger generation of artists, who felt that the question...
Migrant Theatre and the aesthetics of identity
The question of identity has been given a renewed importance at many levels in modern and post-modern societies because the borders between countries, individuals, interiority and exteriority, and between the intimate and the public spheres, have been at the same time constantly strengthened and continually eroded. The world is overflowing with terms like ‘national identity’, ‘cultural identity’, ‘political identity’ , all pointing to a collective dimension while the word identity still refers to a notion of uniqueness. Indeed, the more the meaning was extended, the more vague the concept of identity became. Contemporary theatre does not get away from this general concern nor the hesitations it produces. To over-come this initial contradiction, I propose to create a firm, even if reductive, analytical framework. Nowadays, the common difficulty with defining one’s identity could be reduced to two principle factors. Firstly, living in a world that is constantly and rapidly changing, or in places that are non-concentric and discontinuous weakens the sense of being rooted in one identifiable place. As David Kolb (2007) explains, “there is a spaciouness about our inhabitation (of the world) that forbids solid identity.” Therefore identity must be considered in relation to space. Moreover, contemporary Western society constantly demands us to define ourselves through the paragon of the white male: eternally young, thoroughly active and belonging to the middle-classes. Thus identity must also be considered in relation to society. If you are neither white, male, young and rich or if you are prone to geographical anxieties, the chances that you will feel out of place are quite high indeed. But how is theatre, an art based upon illusion, dealing with the no less illusionary idea of identity? More specifically, how is contemporary theatre considering the many ramifications of this idea?